Fr Casey Cole OFM, renowned Franciscan friar and host of popular YouTube channel Breaking in the Habit, delivered an inspiring address to dozens of young Catholic professionals at the latest Bishop’s Blend event, held on 5 June at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Sydney.
In a talk both reflective and energising, Fr Casey, who was visiting Australia from the US as a guest of the Australian Catholic University, encouraged those gathered to consider what might be holding them back from fully embracing God’s call to discipleship and holiness.
“Tonight I want to talk about the things that might be holding us back that maybe we need to let go of if we were to trust in God and enter into his kingdom,” he said.
The 36-year-old friar challenged the commonly held-belief that God has one specific, narrow path for each person. “The first is that we need to let go of the idea that there is a perfect path for you, because there is not,” he said.
He described how we often ask young people what they want to be when they grow up or what God is calling them to be—as if the answer must align with a predefined role or profession.
“So often we think of it as a narrow path, as if God has chosen that you will be a doctor and you will be a businessman, you will be a janitor, and this is what we’re called to do,” he explained. “This is not how God operates.”
Instead of a rigid role, our primary call as human beings, Fr Casey said, is “to be disciples. It is to be sons of our God. It is a call to holiness.”
He challenged the room to reflect on their understanding of holiness. “I’m curious how many people here think they are holy,” he asked, observing that no hands went up.
“This is the problem,” he said. “This is why Pope Francis wrote an apostolic exhortation about holiness—because we have such a misunderstanding about what holiness is.
“We think holiness means that I’m special, that I’m the best, or God forbid that I’m perfect. That’s not what holiness means. Holiness simply means that we take part in the life of God.”
The Bishop’s Blend series for young professionals is an initiative of Bishop Richard Umbers, and the evening held in a relatively intimate setting allowed attendees to engage with the visiting friar and have their questions answered.
Speaking to The Catholic Weekly later, Fr Cole said that young people had “lost a lot of trust” in institutions including the church.
“They’ve grown up post-911, post-Covid, post-wars and the current world filed with corruption and they’ve seen the beautiful world of the 70s, 80s and 90s which was really a veneer and they’ve seen those things collapse,” he said.
“And they think why would I commit myself to an organisation? So the first thing is to acknowledge their fear is real.
“On the other side of it, is a call to create something better and to recognise that we are better together.”
For young Catholics who want to evangelise to others, Fr Casey said explicitly talking to people about matters of faith could be “step nine” out of ten.
“It begins with being evangelised and receiving, and then about being a witness through living a life of integrity that is attractive to others. Without their trust and interest, we are just talking at people,” he said.
“We can think that we know the truth and everybody needs that truth, but the reality is that people often already know God.
“They may not have an explicit understanding of who God is, but they may know truth, and goodness and beauty by another name.”